Thursday, January 17, 2008

Video game addiction

Here is a question for those who know me - am I addicted to video games?

I'm asking this question as a result of reading this article. In this article, the Aberrant Gamer decides not to play any video games for a period of a week. Basically, she failed. In the case of the Aberrant Gamer, I can partially understand why as her job is video game related. You may not know this but if you are involved in the video game industry, its definitely due to love for the medium as opposed to love of money!

As I read this article, I couldn't help but think "Get a life!". After all, video games (for me) are just a hobby. Granted, I'm probably considered a hardcore gamer considering the amount of time I spend playing games, thinking about games, reading about games, writing about games etc etc etc. However, at the end of the day, it is still just a hobby - a way for me to relax.

So, all in all, when I first read this article, my reaction was that I could easily go a week without playing any video games. However, can I put my money where my mouth (or rather keyboard) is? After all, talk is cheap! To this end, I have decided that I will go for a period of 1 week where I will not play any video games.

As with any test, I need to lay down some ground rules:
  • The test will only run for 1 week. Although I'm sure my wife will be disappointed to hear this, I have no intention of giving up gaming for life.
  • The test will start on 21 January. I am in Shanghai for a business trip at the moment so making the test for this week would be too easy.
  • The test only applies to video games (specifically, no PC games, no X360 games, no NDS games and no mobile games). I can partake in all other forms of entertainment - including reading and writing about video games.
  • Fantasy Football on Facebook is not considered a video game.
  • There will be no penalty for failing this test - other than eternal shame for showing that I have no resolve whatsoever...

Any other rules which I haven't thought of?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may be able to succeed, but I bet you substitute with a lot of crappy TV instead.

Reading sounds good, but I find that you can only do so much of that unless its an extremely good book.

Good luck...

Bro

Jokemeister said...

I know what you mean about the crappy tv - really feels like there isn't anything on TV worth watching.

Anyway, I have a couple of other things I plan to do instead of playing computer games. My plan is to read some books, finish off my Halo comic, watch some DVDs and do some exercise. I figure that should easily last me a week.

Anonymous said...

No difficulty to me. I can live without video games for 6 months.

But not without a violin!

KH